The present invention relates in general to material hauling vehicles, and, more particularly, to devices for supporting a tarpaulin used to cover the material on the vehicle.
A tarpaulin is frequently used to cover materials such as rock, sand, dirt and grain which are being hauled on a vehicle bed or trailer to prevent the material from flying off of the moving vehicle and causing damage to other vehicles. Arched supports or bows which extend between the siderails of the vehicle trailer are typically used to support the tarpaulin when it is applied over the load. Bows of this type prevent the tarpaulin from being damaged by contact with the material and cause the tarpaulin to have an arched profile which readily sheds rainwater and helps to keep the material dry.
A particularly troublesome problem that has arisen from the use of the arched support bows is they are frequently damaged when the material is being loaded into the vehicle bed or trailer. The damage can occur if a front end loader bucket should contact the bows or if compacted portions of the material impact the bows as the material is being loaded into the trailer. The damaged bows must then be repaired or replaced, usually at frequent intervals and at significant cost. If the vehicle operator should fail to notice that a bow has been broken or if the bow should be broken while the vehicle is away from a repair facility, the tarpaulin can be easily punctured by the broken bow. In addition to the damage which can be caused to the bows and the tarpaulin, the material loading process may cause the vehicle sideboards to be broken if the bows are impacted with a sufficient force.
Because of the risk of damage to the support bows and sideboards during loading of material into the vehicle, the vehicle operator will sometimes climb into the trailer and remove the bows prior to loading and then replace the bows before the tarpaulin is placed over the loaded material. Removal and replacement of the bows causes significant delays in the loading process and is also objectionable from a safety standpoint as it subjects the operator to a risk of slipping and falling while climbing into or out of the trailer or vehicle bed.